= SR ES a ee eee Page 18 Cassiar Courier ROVING REPORT SUE PEWSEY I really enjoyed it. | think it’s great that we can have something like this in Cassiar, “Hats Off” to the Concert Society. RON SCHMIDT For starters, I was really pleased to see the thea- tre with a near capacity crowd - quite an im- provement over the last series of concerts, where maybe 20 or 30 people would show up. As for the entertainment itself - well, it’s not the type of music I would normally listen to but I gotta say I found the performers to be excellent and. thoroughly enjoyed the singing, even if it was light opera. The comedy routines were great, too. Also the pianist did a splendid job with variations of “Yankee Doodle pees 2 ANN MASSIN It was just great!.It’s much more interesting to see live performance rather than watching it on T.V. We. should have more of these programs coming up North. Christmas * Friday, December 21 oe ‘music, - cat aod and drink — ‘Come a Wass assailing pens et ec Sac A Bm BEA LA ERI EAS TK BS BROOK BO DB ERUINK EK DO BASEL ERE RE DR BLL THIS MONTH’S QUESTION: _ HOW DID ‘YOU LIKE THE FIRST CONCERT OF THE SEASON? CARL LEFEBVRE “Riordon stole the show” BARBIE GUDERJAHN In the past, the concerts weren’t run that well. But the Overture Society did a good job, and I enjoyed the concert very much, TIM RIORDON I was more than impressed with the quality of the first performance and if this is an indication of what is to come,we can certainly look forward to-an excellent concert season: PUB FE RE SS 0 SG RE BA NSE SYS Ha NG HR OA NG NYS OH UD RE ED VD ARGS NG RS IG NR YEE SSK I PB with Us ston nanan nae eS nC NN fe NELSON — GLEASON WEDDING Nancy Nelson and Chris Gleason were married November 17, 1979 at a double ring ceremony by Mrs. Lillian McPhee at Dease Lake, B.C. Their at-. tendants were Steve and Martha Quigley and Chris’ neice, Trina, was flower girl. Following the ceremony a reception was held at the Dease Lake Community Hall, where friends and relatives of the bride and groom enjoyed an evening of fine food and dancing, with music pro- vided by local musicians. The toast to the bride was given by Bill Zemenchik. Out of town guests included the bride’s sister,- Carol Logan from Vancouver, and longtime friend of the Gleason family, Al Corra also from Vancoue ver. Mr. & Mrs. Gleason will reside at Dease Lake. DEASE LAKE AIRPORT PROJECT A meeting for the proposed airport was held at - the community hall on October 29. The speakers were Art Antrobus - Airport Development Eng- ineer, Mike Creasy - Air Operations Officer, and Brent Driscoll - Technician, all three from Vict: oria. The proposal was to realign and upgrade the ex- isting gravel runway to a 4,000 foot paved stand- ard capable of being licensed as a Class C runway. Extend to 6,000 feet for possible use by DC6 B water bombers. Also they would install some type of navigational aid. This airport would provide a facility that can be: 1. Safely used by the Provincial Government Air Ambulance (Cessna Citation). 2. Safely used by local air carriers providing a regular scheduled service or conducting air charter operations. 3. Safely used by DC6 B water bombers actively engaged in fighting fires under the Forest Pro- tection Service. 4. Safely used.as an emergency landing strip by planes experiencing difficulty whilst flying in the northwest section of the province. Most people were in favor of the airport and the project got underway immediately by a local con- - tractor, Dease Valley. Scaaaees . The airport should be apes for operation in the year 1981. - On November 24 the students of Dease Lake EI-. ementary Junior Secondary School had a’sponsor- ed dance-athon to raise money for “The Kids Community Club”. The dance-athon began at 6 pam. and ended at 42 midnight. Approximately thirty ‘students showed up for the event, which “\ turned out.to be very prosperous. Many. thanks to the people of Dease Lake, who contributed to. this fund-raising event. by C. Williams and T. Holtz Cont. from page 2 Stewart - Cassiar After the war, a 70 mile mining road was built from the Alaska Highway to McDame to access placer gold deposits + Geological surveys and mapping of the area led to the dis- covery of the Cassiar asbestos deposit and subsequent ex- tension of access from the McDame Road. The Cassiar mine was put into production in-the early 1950's and at the time was hailed as one of the better deposits in exist- - ence, Ore was truck hauled northward 360 miles to White- horse, for a 91 mile rail shipment to the Alaskan port at _ Skagway. The original announcement gave the need for the Stewart - Cassiar Road as shorter transportation for Cassiar asbes- tos. The new route to Stewart was to be only about 35 miles shorter but saved a rail haul and about 300 miles of ocean transport towards southern markets. The British Columbia Government engaged the land sur- veying firm McElhanney, MacRae of Vancouver to per- form the reconnaissance and location of the route. Mr. George Smith, B.C.L.S., of that company carried out te- connaissance in light fixed wing aircraft to choose the route. The most practical and direct route, without going into Alaskan territory, was to follow along fairly easy riv- er valleys on the interior plateau and turn to cross the very heavy Coastal Mountain Range through the ice block- ed Bear Pass and then terminate at Stewart. This recon- Naissance allowed boundaries of an uncontrolled strip top- Ographic map about a half mile wide over the route to be drawn from air photos. The map was at a scale of 600 feet per inch, with 20 foot contour intervals. Also, an air photo interpretation for surficial material indentification and associated construction problems was carried out and marked on a set of air photos. The most difficult section of construction would be through the narrow, steep and rocky Bear Pass, which was partially blocked. by the tongue of the Bear Glacier flow- ing from the ice fields to the south. Typical of the Coast Range summit, this section receives heavy precipitation with flood peaks usually occurring during October - November rain storms, followed by deep snowfalls lasting until late spring, Once through this pass, construction costs would lighten because’ of easier terrain but the heavy precipitation con- tinues to near the lower crossing of the Bell-Irving River. Further inland the climate gradually changes to a more In- terior type with less precipitation and with peak stream “flows occurring in June from combined rain and snowmelt Forest cover is generally not heavy but has some. good timber in the heavier precipitation belts and on some in- terior river valley bottoms where large spruce and balsam grow, With the general route decided construction was started in 1953 with equipment working south of Cassiar, The Day Labour method originally adopted proved inefficient and was abandoned after 50 miles of construction to the north end of Dease Lake, Thereafter, tendered contracts were to be awarded to the lowest bidder. Location ground surveys, aided by the strip mapping; were commenced by McElhanney MacRae at Dease Lake heading south and from Stewart northwards. The road was to be designed for a 50 mile per hour stand- — ard, 24 foot wide gravel surface composed of one foot thick pit run gravel 3 inch minus. Roadway ditches were to be one foot deep and side slopes % to 1. inch rock and 1% to 1 inch other material. Horizontal curvature was the best obtainable to fit the terrain: and few curves outside the mountainous areas exceed 6 degree (900'foot radius). ‘Grades were maximum 10% for a few short sections, otherwise 7% was attempted as an upper limit. ‘ Einancina for the road was obtained from Provincial funds budgeted by the Department of Mines, but administered by the Department of Highways for the contract sections. Later in 1958 the Province entered into an agreement with the Federal Governmentjunder-the “Roads. to. Re-- sources” scheme with shared costs up to a maximum of fifteen million dollars. Also, in 1958, during the general slow-down of-the econ- - omy, the location survey was assumed by the Department of Highways from McElhanney MacRae, who, had! com-— Dieted about one-third of the route. The location was continued during summer months only, using river boats in the north along the Kinaskan section, - with champs under canvas and supplied by fixed wing air- craft. In the Bear River section survey crews travelled by existing mining road. from Stewart to this end, near Amer- ican Creek, and walked 2nd back-packed towards the Bear Pass. The remaining section in between Bear Pass and Kinaskan was located by crews transported by helicopter from fly camps supplied by float planes. Many varied. problems were encountered during construc- tion of the road. The building:-had to proceed from each end and await completion of each section before the ad- joining section could be started. The Cassiar end was a thousand road miles from Edmonton, which tended to be the supply center for the north. Stewart is about 600 miles by sea from Vancouver, which was the supply centre for some contractors working from the south, Men, equip- ment and supplies had to be transported long distances through undependable routes. Barge and air service from Prince Rupert to Stewart could be delayed several days during bad weather, especially in fall and winter. Skilled men to operate and maintain equipment were unwilling to stay for long periods in the remote areas, although this de- pended to some extent on the unemployment situation. As the road was extended the supply routes became long- er. Road maintenance behind the contractor was minimal in line with the light traffic volumes and were subject to closure by flooding or failure due to overloading tempor- ary bridges by heavy construction equipment. If the con- tractor’s fuel supplies ran out when the road was closed work stopped or else fuel had to be supplied by air at more expense. Most contractors built air strips adjacent to their camps, where the terrain permitted. Construction problems encountered were soils, combined with wet weather, Fine grained soils, some remaining fro- zen until late in the year, were encountered long Dease Lake. Strohn Lake, a 250 acre lake at the headwaters of Bear “River, had been formed by damming of the valley by the tongue of the glacier and during two successive October rain storms the lake filled with rain and melt water, up- lifted the ice dam and suddenly released large volumes of water through ice crevasses. This added to the already swollen Bear River and severely damaged downstream sec- tions of the road. Strohn Lake level dropped over 100 feet in twenty-four hours during the second such flood, With no accurate flows available for the Bear River, ap- proximate hydrologic estimates of flows, storage and lake draw-down indicated that perhaps potential damage could be reduced by one-third or more if a channel was cut through the ice to prevent sudden release of water, A fair- ly extensive channel was excavated by drilling and blasting with low velocity powder and pushing loose ice by bull- dozer. After this the ice seemed to retreat at an accelerat- ed rate and the channel melted to ground so water did not have the opportunity to spill through it. The reason for the rapid retreat of the glacial front is not clear as it may have happened in any case or the channel may have effect- ively steepened the gradient of the main glacier, increasing ice flow faster than winter snows could replenish the “eles fields. Gravel deposits along the route were fairly numerous with material found mainly in existing river bars, elevated ter- ‘races, alluvial fans, deltas, and outwashes, eae re ee ee eT PE ew ee Cassiar Courier Page 19 “Most ofthe gravels had a high proportion of fines which “served: well for: pit run, However, along the Bell-Irving . River the gravel-was found in shallow terraces overlying wet silt. Here the gravel had been formed from argillite rock native to the area but lacked fines and was very coarse. The soft argillite was unsuitable for concrete ag- gregate so that long haul distances were necessary for bridge work, Through the low Ningunsaw Pass, connecting the Bell- Irving to Iskut River systems, the road was originally laid out on the side-hill walls of the valley in potential rock over-lain with wet fine-grained soils. These were revised, eliminating some of the side hill by locating on the valley floor and trying to keep clear of avalance run-out zones from the mountains to the west, The Ningunsaw Pass section was the last to be completed to open the road in November 1972, With the opening of the road in sight the Ministry of High- ways established depots for maintenance men and equip- ment at Meziadin Lake, Bob Quinn Lake and Dease Lake to carry out maintenance on a regular basis. The Provincial Forest Service’ built a bridge over the Nass River near Meziadin Lake in 1972, but this connected to private logging roads leading to Terrace and Kitwanga. Public traffic was only permitted during night hours and weekends so that there was no quick access to the south, to the Yellowhead Highway 16, where much of the traf- fic originates. In 1973 the road south from Meziadin to Kitwanga was declared public and the Province commenced up-grading to produce an all weather road connection from Stewart to Highway 16, Since that time everyone is familiar with the road and the construction and maintenance which has taken place. In 1974 the Provinée and Canada signed a 10 year road development agreement to share in an upgrading program for this and other northern highways. This was called the Western Northlands Highway Agreeement. Canada shared in construction costs up to $5 million per year for the first 5 years of the program and then in 1979 terminated the agreement unilaterally. i During the life of the 5 year shareable agreement from 1974 to 1979 expenditures on Highway 37 and 37A were: Province Canada 74/75 $1,000,000 $1,000.000* TSSIG 2,000,000 2,000,000* 76/77 8,000,000 5,000,000 77/78 13,000,000 5,000,000 78/79 14,000,000 5,000,000 38,000,000 18,000,000 : : ti * Some claims were on Highway 16. rit - Expenditures by the Province for reconstruction, paving, and permanent bridges are now at the level of $15/20 mil- lion per year and expected to continue at this level in spite of the absence of Federal assistance, Cost of mainten- _ ance by the Province is $5,000,000 per year. Réleased by the Ministry of Highways Portraits ine Passport Pictures” Mon. 7:30 B & W Darkroom Finishing cf Films, Cameras & Accessories’ for sale Camera Repairs Wedding &Special Events CIRO'S PHOTO STUDIO 775 Malozemoff (townhouse) Mortifee Munshaw Dealer for Color and Enlargg _ Christmas Greetings and best wishes for the Sew Sear 718-7345